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EditQuote Text (Do not add quotation marks):Today’s global environmental challenges require breakthrough leadership.Investing in emerging talent and the bold and life-changing ideas they generate are among the most important contributions we can make. Tom and I are delighted to establish the Friedman Fellowship Program for Science at Conservation International to support brilliant science minds as they pursue their dreams and find new solutions to these 21st-century challenges.

The Ann and Tom Friedman Fellows for Science Program recognizes and supports the key role that science plays in achieving CI’s conservation goals. During the two-year program, the Friedman science fellows will have the opportunity to participate in a cohort program that will provide leadership training, site visits and mentoring. Supported by CI’s vast network of staff and partners, they will effectively advance their research and its application on the ground ​in our priority regions around the world.

CI is coming up with innovative ways to document and quantify the benefits of a healthy planet, and the Friedman fellows will contribute important scientific research to advance that work — and solve our greatest conservation challenges.

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Current Fellows

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Water & CitiesCI is working to conserve ecosystems that provide water and prevent flooding in three of the five largest megacities in Latin Americas – Bogotá, Mexico City, and Rio de Janeiro. Together, these three cities are home to more people than California and almost as many as Spain. In Bogotá, 95% of water come from Andean moorlands, so called ‘paramos.' In Mexico City, the Water Forest (‘Bosque de Agua’) provides 70% of the water that recharge the main freshwater reservoirs for the city. In Rio de Janeiro, two watersheds provide important freshwater sources for the city. All three cities suffer from regular flooding and both wetlands and forests which can reduce the likelihood of floods have been destroyed (e.g. 99% of the wetlands in Bogotá have been converted since 1940).

Natalia is quantifying how much ecosystem conservation and restoration can contribute to water provision and flood prevention in these three cities, and to compare the cost of such ecosystem conservation and restoration actions with other, hard infrastructure solutions. The methods, data and results developed by Natalia will be used to build support for ecosystem conservation and restoration in and around the three cities, and will be used as models to be replicated in other cities in Latin America and beyond.

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Climate Change AdaptationClimate change is reshaping human civilization. How we respond will determine the future of our species. Our food system, our economies, our cities and our communities — they’re all adapted to the climate we currently live in. But what if the climate changes too fast for us to keep up? The fate of the one and only planet we’ve ever called home is uncertain. It is in everyone's interest to come together to address the challenges we face.

Giacomo is studying the new frontier of climate change, broadly addressing the range of climate change impacts for which climate change adaptation will not be viable. Giacomo is developing specific and replicable recommendations to enhance resilience and sustainable development in specific geographies, countries, and commodities.